I spent a good half hour late last night texting a friend. I sound like a teenager, don’t I? We were going back and forth, sharing our “teen” stories and encouraging each other. What I especially love about this friend is that she is one who can truly relate. We both have sons who are seniors. We both have daughters that are just one year apart and our youngest sons are both in 7th grade. In fact, all of our kids are very good friends, having grown up in the church together. One of the topics of our texting was … Continue reading →

A recent Washington Post article addresses the conflict of treating teenagers like kids, or considering them to be young adults. Just who is a “young adult”? Common sense says legal adulthood starts at age 18. But elements of our society have unofficially declared that the onset of adulthood matches the onset of puberty at the very grown-up age of 12 – which is one of the reasons why parents often seem uncertain about how to parent during the critical teen years. The point of the article appears to be that parents should not forgo parenting and being hand on with … Continue reading →

If you can’t find a single thing valuable about your kids’ video games, then you obviously haven’t been reading the paper inserts that come in the game boxes. Many video game manufacturers now include tiny leaflets as part of their product’s packaging listing reasons why electronic gaming is beneficial to a child’s development. Surprisingly, more and more childhood experts are going public supporting the video-games-can-be-an-important-part-of-a-child’s-social-life philosophy. Though, the experts add one caveat: Video games are okay provided they are played in moderation and the types of games being played are age appropriate. A recent study found that quality video games: … Continue reading →

Teen jobs are scarce this summer. Unless they already had a job during the school year, the chances of having a job this summer are slim. This leaves parents with bored, broke, jobless teens. It is a sad sight to behold for sure. Before you resign to watching them laze away the summer playing video games, eating everything in sight and complaining, look for ways to keep them active and productive this summer. Here are some ideas you can use. Study: Realizing that this is the last thing you want to say to a teen during the summer for fear … Continue reading →

After watching a story on the Today show about teens wanting plastic surgery, I could only think that this was a symptom of a bigger problem. Teens who linger on the imperfections in their body, are generally suffering from a case of low self esteem. Sure, there may be some things about their body, anyone’s body, that they would want to change, especially if mom and dad have already changed those same features. Still, for a teen to be willing to trade the pain of the knife for a perfect nose or less giggly middle, I have to wonder if … Continue reading →